Tuesday, June 17, 2008

My wife and I were invited to dinner with good friends. A nice couple from Nîmes. We arrived early and they showed us around their marvelous old town. Operative word 'old'. According to Wikipedia Nîmes had a presence of semi-nomadic cultivators in the period 4000 to 3500 BC. Somewhere around 28 BC Rome realized the semi-nomadic cultivators were not keeping up the place and they were always late with the rent so they were ousted. Rome took over and built some Roman bling. Those Romans , their bling is all over this country.This is the Nîmes Amphitheatre. Very impressive. Like the Colosseo In Rome.

This is the the Maison Carrée

This is the The Jardins de la Fontaine

This the center of town - notice the palm tree, stay with me on this.

This crocodile (it's made of bronze,very life like) is by the Palm tree. . . .

We're still in France. After our trip to Italy we fell into work/life routine and I took a little hiatus from photography. I still love it and I will definitely continue doing it – but I took a little breather. As for

France, it is still beautiful and we’re enjoying ourselves but our time is dwindling. We only have a month and half left and then it will be back to the U.S of A. Are we anxious? Yes, we are. Two years is long time to live outside your country. But we are also sad to be leaving so many French friends. I think this experience has changed me and my way of thinking about the world. We went up to the center of Montpellier last Sunday and just sat at a sidewalk café and watched Europe meander by our little table. My wife had a coke and I had a beer. We might have waved an American flag over our head with that order. As always street musicians were everywhere and a brass band formed around the statue of the three graces. They were good. I will try to post a video.